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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to